I feel a little stuck - entrepreneur mood
Hey everybody,
My mood:
- Gotta work on 3 web development projects and 1 mobile for my clients at http://heavydots.com (Barcelona, Spain)
- Gotta continue online entrepreneurial course and present a business plan because I'm applying to a 40.000 EUR grant from EU to open office in Romania
- Gotta plan / do short term actions with current business regarding collecting money from projects and keep finances up to date
- Gotta plan / do short-long term steps to hire new developers and bringing new better paying clients
- .. And apart from this, I also wish to dedicate some time working on a Product/Saas, like https://www.indiehackers.com/product/allmypicz
This post doesn't have any goal at all.. just wanted to share it with someone..
Sometimes handling everything turns out to be quite overwhelming and it's hard to stay motivated, have clear goals and make progress. Specially if you're not a very disciplined person and don't have the best business and organizational mindset.
But here I am/we are..
If anyone is going through a similar situation, good luck with it!
Hi,
Yes I think everybody feels different amounts of overwhelm at different times, especially if you're juggling family, a job, a side gig and everything.
One thing I do to help is to keep a list with a SINGLE item on it. It is the very next thing you need to do. It is always VERY specific and typically can be done in 30 mins (if it's bigger I break it down). I personally use Trello but pen and paper or any tool of your choice should work.
The idea behind it is, that at least for me, getting started is the hardest. I try and remove as much friction as possible.
I find that if I don't do this I procrastinate like crazy.
Also when you finish the LAST thing you should do is add the next task
Just my two cents!
Simon
Thanks Simon. Indeed I try to keep a list, sometimes using a mix of paper and Trello. And it used to work.. but I guess that every time I start to deal with too many and too complex projects I cannot properly break down things and I'm constantly wanting to jump from one to another and I finally get stressed and end up doing none. But indeed, need to stick to breaking down and doing items one by one from a list.
Good luck, let me know if I can do anything to help!
Thanks again Simon!!
Yes. It does get overwhelming.
I have a day job. So once in such a case, I simply dedicated one day for a project. Nothing else on that day, unless something breaks. That way, things though slow, but kept progressing.
Good luck to you too, bro. 👍
Thanks Shree.
I am also a believer of that system. I think it is better to focus on one project at a time because otherwise projects that require you hours to only get started will never get any real progress.
But it's a challenge when having multiple projects.. sometimes one day is not enough to make sufficient progress if you deal with a deadline, or need the money..
I feel like the hardest thing to do is keeping focus. Every time I have no motivation to continue what I ought to be doing and increase interest in "the" distraction I force myself to get control back.
I can only imagine this control is harder to achieve when you're balancing several different and important tasks.
Thank you for the feedback Daniel.
Indeed it is harder to keep focus when dealing with multiple important projects because you get stuck not knowing what to prioritize.
Sometimes it ends up like:
Some people decide to plan their week (or day) according to their open tasks. Dividing the week in time units based on task priority can help remove distractions you have.
I can't imagine the pressure you endure with your obligations (eg client work) and your dreams (eg the grant and saas). Have you considered off loading some of these to your developers?
I try to plan the week but I am doing very wrong estimates.
Generally I have multiple projects on my plate that require large amounts of time/work. So I cannot see myself working 1h here, and 3h there.
So if I say I spend 4h on this project and 3h on another, I most probably end up spending 2-3 days only on one because otherwise I feel I lose the track and have to start again from scratch every time if I switch too early.
I'm thinking about delegating to other people, I will have to think more about that. Most of the projects are complex projects, on a deadline, and a tight budget, "the best 3 ingredients".. So bringing someone new requires more time to adapt and will cost clients/or me more money.
Hopefully I will finish a phase with this projects and be able to start delegating most of the new projects soon.
What would be a sustainable path forward? From where I sit it seems like you're pretty stuck.
I certainly hope closing those projects grants you salvation. Good luck!
Thanks Daniel! Indeed, I guess I really need a mix of hard/smart work.. On one side to deliver the best that I can, and make better use of a delegator mindset. So yeah, try to enjoy the process, do my best, and try to think out of the box and make proper decisions to change the situation in the near future.
Hey everybody, I want to give huge thanks to all of you that dedicated some time to read me and give me feedback! It really helps to boost morale.
Also I'd like to share with you that yesterday after working in the morning from a coffee shop in Masnou, Barcelona, in the afternoon I packed a bag with clothes and the laptop and went to a random trip on train.
I'm right now in Portbou, on the coast, very close to France. And at 2pm today I'm taking another train to Avignon where at night I'll meet an old friend who lives there.
I'm working from hostels and from the train.
So I think if someone else goes through something like this, maybe some random travel can help them, I think it helps me. I needed to be somewhere else than home or the office.
Thanks again, IH community is great!
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Thanks so much for the feedback Thomas.
Indeed the weather is affecting us in winter. Right now in Barcelona it's a mix of sunny days and rainy days. Better indeed than England.
I try to get some natural sun every day, but thanks for the tip on the lamps, didn't knew about them, maybe will try when dealing with no-sun-days. I will be travelling to soon Romania and there it's dark after 4pm in winter.
I also try to eat varied food and yes, it is important..
As for the organization, yes, I'm like with 4-6 projects that I need to make important progress during the following weeks and each of them is of considerable size.. one can take up to 3 hours to "only get started", you know, read documentation, plan things, and then do them. If I switch to another project I lose all that and start over again.
So yes I have to try to be very strategic with the planning and the priorities..
This comment was deleted 8 years ago